I decided to take my newly painted X-Men force for a spin against Wyrm’s Avengers. Wyrm ran his getting close to usual list of Captain America, Black Widow, Iron Man, Thor, Hulk and the Mighty Avengers team card. I’ve painted up Cyclops, Colossus, Rogue, Wolverine, Jean Grey and Emma Frost and also included the Uncanny X-men team card (giving the team +1 stamina) to take it to an even 50 levels.

Set-up and Deployment

Wyrm had been busy working on his board, which is starting to take shape, and we mixed in some of the smaller elements from my collection. We agreed sizes for terrain as follows:

Size Two – Dumpsters and barrels

Size Three – Barricades

Size Four – Cars and forklift

Size Five – Ambulance and Fire Truck

Size Six – Shipping containers and small ruins

Size Seven – Big Ruins

Wyrm deploys his team in a tight grouping relatively centrally in his deployment zone, with Black Widow infiltrating on to the right energy pillar. I favour my left flank with Jean Grey and Cyclops, have Wolverine, Colossus and Emma Frost in the centre and Rogue slightly to my right intending for her to head over and deal with Black Widow.

I use Emma Frost’s Mastermind ability to remove one of Wyrm’s tokens and add one of mine into the initiative bag.

Round One

I win initiative, and Cyclops activates and pops his once a game ‘To Me My X-Men’ ability, providing everyone within 8” +1 speed for the round. He then moves forward (with me immediately forgetting he has +1 speed…), but finds himself just out of range to Black Widow with his blast. I don’t use Master Tactician here, as I got confused and thought it was the skill that granted me a free pass for the round…

Black Widow flips the pillar she’s next to over to Avengers control, and then moves away as quickly as she can.

Colossus picks up and throws Wolverine forward as far as he can before running up after him.

Iron Man flies into the central ruin and fires a Unibeam at Wolverine, which Colossus bodyguards and the attack misses (I note I used Defensive Improvements on Colossus here, which I’ve since discovered he can’t do due to his Solid rule. I’m pretty sure the attack was still a miss, but one of the challenges learning a new team).

Wyrm passes here (as he started with one fewer model), I also pass (thinking Master Tactician on Cyclops grants me a pass), then Wyrm uses Black Widow’s pass (correctly from Strategist).

Wolverine gets up off the ground and moves to the central pillar, putting it under X-Men control. Then, using Agile, he moves again to get into contact with Cap and makes an overloaded Snikt attack (two POW, two damage, melee attack, irresistible) which Cap unsurprisingly Shield Blocks (once-per-turn cancel a physical or energy attack).

Thor activates, picking up the Hulk and throwing him forward towards my left flank, he then flies over to the middle pillar and flips it back under Avengers control.

Rogue moves over to the right pillar, positioning so that Black Widow will have to come through her to get back to the pillar, and flips it to X-men control.

Hulk gets up off the ground, making a two POW move into the centre of my left flank and drops Hulk Earthquake (once-per-game, four POW, 4” expansive wave, two damage, knock down for those who fail agility), Jean Grey and Emma Frost pass their agility rolls, but Cyclops and Colossus fail. He then makes a Hulk Smash (two POW, two damage, can be overloaded for push/1d8) attack on Jean Grey but misses.

No KO rolls or victory points this round.

Round Two

Wyrm wins initiative and kicks the round off with Hulk. He uses Thunderclap (once-per-round, four POW, four damage, template attack), which hits Cyclops, Colossus and Emma Frost, all of whom fail agility. He then grabs a nearboy barricade and throws it at Colossus.

Colossus gets up, moves into contact with the Hulk and throws him at a nearby barricade.

Cap activates, making an overloaded (for dice) Shield Strike on Wolverine (once-per-round, two POW, two damage melee attack, irresistible, can be overloaded for Stun/1), which hits. He then picks up Wolverine and tosses him into the ambulance.

Cyclops gets up and makes a Massive Blast attack (once-per-game, four POW, five damage, penetrative, can be overloaded for pierce/4) on the prone Hulk, overloading it for Pierce/4, which hits Thor as well as Hulk. He then attempts Master Tactician (to activate another model) but fails.

Thor moves into the middle of my main body of models and makes a For Midgard attack (once-per-round, four POW, four damage, 6” melee attack, push 1d8 and can be overloaded for explosive/2) on Colossus, overload for dice. This hits and pushes Colossus 7” back towards the back left corner of the board, luckily falling just short of a dumpster. Wyrm realises at this point he has made a mistake in movement, as Thor should have ended in contact with someone to provide more options on what to do next. Regardless, he elects to use Bring the Thunder (once-per-game, five POW, four damage, 20” range, can be overloaded for Stun/2) on Jean Grey, overloaded for dice, which hits and sees her enter the pale.

Emma Frost uses Drain Psyche on Hulk, reducing his Willpower and Mental Defence by one, then uses Astral Bolt (ability that causes two mental damage unless a Willpower test is passed). She then follows this up with a Psi-Bolt on Hulk, which scores a critical hit.

Wyrm elects to pass.

Jean Grey makes an overloaded Psychic Illusions attack on Hulk, which hits, then uses Telekinesis (ability allowing her to throw on a terrain piece within 4” at effective strength 3) on a nearby barricade and throws it at the Hulk.

Ironman moves into contact with Jean Grey and does an overloaded grab and throw but luckily is unable to get a hold of her. He then takes two Repulsor Blast shots (two POW, two damage, 8” range, can be overloaded for +2 damage) at Emma Frost but both miss.

Wolverine gets up and moves twice to get into contact with the Hulk and makes a Snikt attack, incapacitating him!

Wyrm passes using Black Widow’s Strategist.

Rogue moves into contact with Black Widow and makes an overloaded Superstrike (once-per-round, three POW, two damage, melee attack, Stun/2) which hits triggering Power Thief (opponent loses one POW, and Rogue gains one). She uses the stolen POW to make a Strike attack (two POW, one damage melee attack) but misses.

Black Widow then runs away.

I manage to pass all my KO tests which felt critical to keep me in the game at the time.

Round Three

Wyrm wins initiative again, and opens with Ironman, who makes an overloaded grab and throw on Jean Grey, this time getting her and throwing her into the shipping containers on my left, which sees her KO’d. He then follows up with a Repulsor Blast on her, which hits and incapacitates her.

Colossus moves up to Ironman, grabbing him and throwing him at Thor, however Thor sees it coming and dodges.

Thor then charges at Colossus, making a For Asgard attack (three POW, magical attack, two daage, Push/2, can’t be overloaded), which connects handily. He then makes an overloaded For Midgard attack, which just manages to connect and incapacitates Colossus.

Emma Frost seeing her two teammates drop shifts to Diamond Form (once-per-game ability that gives her +3 to all defences and +2 strength until she switches it off). She then moves into contact with the prone Ironman and throws him at Thor, who again dodges.

Cap moves to Cyclops and does a Shield Strike, missing, then follows up by picking Cyclops up and tossing him into the left energy pillar.

Cyclops gets up and moves slightly, then launches his Optic Devastation attack (once-per-round, 3 POW energy attack, three damage, 8” range and explosive/3) on Cap, overloading it as Cap is now out of POW so unable to Shield Block. He hits Cap with the explosion getting Ironman, Thor (passes agility) and Wolverine (also passes agility).

Black Widow fires off a Bullet Barrage (two POW, one damage, 12” range, can be overloaded for +1 damage) at Rogue, before running away.

Wolverine moves into contact with Ironman and makes a Snikt attack which hits, pushing him intot he red zone at which point Wyrm fails his stamina roll and Ironman loses consciousness. Wolverine makes a second Snikt attack which incapacitates Ironman.

Rogue activates, moving to the middle pillar and flipping it back under X-Men control.

Cyclops fails his stamina roll and is KO’d. I receive one victory point from holding the rightmost pillar for three consecutive turns.

Round Four

Wyrm wins initiative again, and I begin to wonder if I’d changed the right tokens in the bag…

Thor starts the round, making a For Midgard attack on Cyclops, which hits and incapacitates him. He then moves into contact with Emma Frost, picking her up and throwing her into the nearby shipping containers.

Emma Frost gets up and moves to the left pillar, flipping it to X-Men control, then makes a Psi-Bolt attack on Cap which misses.

Cap moves into contact with Wolverine and makes a Shield Strike attack which connects. He then overloads a grab and throw, but fails to pick him up.

Rogue flies to Black Widow and makes an overloaded Superstrike which misses.

Seems I missed writing down what Wolverine and Black Widow did this round…

Emma Frost fails her stamina check becoming knocked out, but Wolverine stays upright. I score +1 victory point for having all three pillars aligned at the end of the round.

Round Five

Wyrm wins initiative again and starts with Thor, moving over to Emma Frost and hitting her with a For Midgard attack which deals sufficient damage to incapacitate her. He then flips the left pillar over to Avenger control.

Wolverine makes an overloaded (for dice) The Best There Is attack (one-per-game, four POW physical attack, four damage, irresistible, can be overloaded for push/4) which hits. He then follows up with a Snikt attack, however this misses.

Black Widow flips the switch on the right pillar then runs towards the centre pillar on the table.

Rogue moves to the right pillar and takes it back under X-Men control.

Cap looks to move to the centre pillar then right pillar to flip both these back to the Avengers, but re-reading the mission, only the first player to control all three gets a VP. Given that, the best he can do is one VP for having the most at the end of the game, so he’d have to incapacitate Rogue and Wolverine to win which doesn’t look possible so we call it there.

A win to me, two victory points to one.

Conclusion

A very interesting game, with lots of learning playing the new team. I feel like this team has a lot more depth than my street level Superhumans, with Jean Grey and Emma Frost bringing mental attacks, Cyclops being a bit of a glass hammer and Colossus really a tank. Interestingly, Hulk seems to have a real weakness to mental attacks, which sees this team better able to deal with him than others.

Mastermind seemed like quite an overpowered ability going in, tipping the scales significantly in my favour for initiative, however Wyrm’s luck really undid this. I don’t think this is an accurate representation, and am interested to see how that plays out over a few more games.

Very enjoyable taking the new team for a spin, however it feels like I’ll have to play a fair bit more with them to really get the most out of them.

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I’ve been playing hobby games for over 20 years, getting in a mix of different miniature and board games. I enjoy all aspects of the hobby, especially generating a new anecdote from the pain of an epic dice fail. Read More…